Various systems and methods have been developed for providing viewers of broadcast and cable television weather presentations with informative and accurate weather information. Typically, such systems provide a display of representations of weather phenomena, e.g., clouds, rain, storms, etc., overlaid on a map of a geographical area of interest. Such displays were originally created by drawing representations of weather phenomena, or placing pre-made weather phenomenon symbols, on a physical map of an area of interest. The image of the map was then broadcast to viewers, usually with a weather presenter positioned in front of the map to provide an explanation of the map display. Computer systems now are employed to facilitate the generation of weather report displays, using computer-generated graphics and animation.
A typical computer-implemented system for preparing a weather presentation will include detailed digital maps of geographic areas of interest stored for access by the computer. Weather information, such as satellite imagery and/or weather radar information, such as NEXRAD weather radar information provided by the government or live local radar data, is provided to the system. The system scales the received weather information, which is then overlaid on the digital maps to create a graphic display of the weather for a particular area of interest. Weather information received by the system may be processed to generate weather symbols, color contours, or other representations of the weather information that are overlaid on the digital maps to create the weather display. A series of such weather displays may be generated by the computer system, and played back in sequence to provide an animated image of the movement of weather phenomena through a geographic area. Such systems may provide an operator with various tools for selecting, e.g., the geographic location to be displayed, reference points to be displayed on the geographic map, e.g., cities, roads, borders, etc., the source of the weather information to be displayed on the geographic map, e.g., satellite imagery or radar, and how the weather information will be represented, e.g., symbols, color contours, etc. Weather forecast displays are generated in a similar manner using weather forecast information obtained from various sources, such as, for example, weather forecast models.
Using a system as described above, a series of scenes may be generated that are combined to form a complete weather report presentation of past, present, and/or future weather conditions for one or more geographic areas of interest to the viewers thereof. Typically at least a portion of such a weather presentation, i.e., at least some of the computer generated scenes forming the presentation, are presented to viewers by an on-screen weather presenter who appears in front of or as part of the computer generated scene while explaining the information presented therein. This affect is achieved by positioning the weather presenter in front of a background screen of a particular background color, e.g., typically a green or blue screen. A camera captures the image of the presenter in front of the screen and provides that image to a computer which replaces each picture element (pixel) in the camera image having the background screen color with a corresponding pixel from the computer generated weather presentation scene. Thus, the weather presenter appears in the computer generated scene in the weather report presentation. This combined scene, with the weather presenter appearing in the computer generated scene, is provided on a monitor that is visible to the presenter so that the presenter can coordinate his position and movements in real space with the computer generated scene, e.g., to point out to viewers specific areas of interest in the computer generated scene.
In some more advanced weather report presentation systems of this type the on-screen weather presenter is able to interact with the computer generated scene in which the presenter appears. For example, in such systems, by movement of the presenter's hand or other part of the body, or of a pointing device held by the presenter, the presenter may draw lines, cause computer generated objects to appear or disappear, and/or move such objects around on the computer generated scene in which the presenter appears. This effect preferably is achieved by analyzing the image obtained by the camera of the presenter in front of the background screen to find and track the position of a pointing element, e.g., the presenter's hand, in the field of view of the camera. Exemplary systems and methods for tracking a pointing element in a video field in this manner are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,270,820, 5,699,442, and 6,549,659.
In conventional systems and methods for the presentation of weather report presentations the on-screen presenter typically holds a communication device in his hand during the presentation. (In some systems this communication device may be implemented, alternatively or additionally, as a device operable by the on-screen presenter using his foot.) The communication device typically includes several buttons and is in communication, either via a wired or a wireless link, with the presentation computer system. The on-screen presenter uses this communication device to send signals to the computer system during the presentation to indicate that certain actions are to be taken or changes to the presentation are to be made. For example, in systems where the tracking of a pointing element, e.g., the onscreen presenter's hand, in the video field is used to allow the presenter to interact with the scene in which he appears, the communication device may be used by the presenter to indicate which action is to occur at the location identified by the pointing element. For example, the presenter may push a button on the communication device to indicate that a line should be drawn in the scene beginning at the current position of the pointing element. Pushing another button on the communication device may indicate that an icon or other graphic is to appear in the scene at the location indicated by the pointing element. The specific action to be taken in response to a particular signal generated by the communication device at a particular point in the presentation is pre-programmed in the system.
A conventional use of the communication device by the on-screen presenter is to indicate that the next scene in the presentation is to be displayed. This allows the presenter to sequence through a series of scenes which form the presentation at the pace desired by the presenter while maintaining the presenter's position on-screen and thus in or as part of the presentation itself. Thus, using the communication device, the on-screen presenter controls the progress of the presentation, scene to scene. A limitation of conventional presentation systems and methods of this type is that the sequence of scenes in which the presenter is to appear must be pre-scripted. During the presentation, the on-screen presenter, using the communication device, controls the timing of the scene sequence, i.e., using the communication device he can determine when to proceed to the next scene. However, since the sequence of scenes is predetermined, the onscreen presenter is able to proceed only linearly, scene by scene, through the pre-scripted presentation.
What is desired is a system and method for the generation and presentation of presentations, such as weather report presentations, where an on-screen presenter is able to interact with the presentation scenes in which the on-screen presenter appears to select for display or launch one of several possible different next subsequent scenes from the current scene being presented, thereby to proceed through such a presentation by presenting a sequence of scenes in a non-linear manner.